Kasim Bey

Kasim Bey was the Governor of Icel and the ambassador of the Ottoman Empire to the Papal States. In 1498, Kasim Bey arrived in Rome with gifts from Sultan Bayezid II to Pope Alexander VI, and while the Pope doubted Bayezid's wishes for peace and harmony, his secretary Francesc Gacet believed that Bey was genuine. Gacet later informed Bey that the Pope gave the Ottomans permission to assault the Republic of Venice and conquer the islands of Zante and Cephalonia, as Venice stood idly by during the Italian War of 1494-98; the Pope intended for the Ottoman invasion to lure Gonzalo de Cordoba's Spanish troops from Rome to Venice to fight the Turks. This move would end the Spanish occupation of Rome, which bothered the College of Cardinals and the Pope.